Are 2001's First Growths
A Lasting Value?

How to Tell if a $175 Wine
Is -- or Isn't -- a Bargain;
Facing a Shaky Future

By

Dorothy J. Gaiter and

John Brecher Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Oct. 1, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

The first-growth Bordeaux from 2001 have arrived, with an average price tag two-thirds lower than the same wine of the previous vintage. Two-thirds off! That has to be a bargain, right? Well, hold on.

There are five first growths: Chateaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux and Mouton Rothschild. They achieved this lofty status as part of the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, which was ordered up by Napoleon III and ranked...